Coyote hunt is setting records this winter, outfitter says

A northwestern New Brunswick outfitter says this has been his best winter yet for hunting coyotes and estimates roughly 60 of the animals have been killed in the area.

Frank Hathaway, the owner of Haley Brook Camps outside of Plaster Rock said this winter alone, about 55 coyotes have been killed in an area of six-and-a-half-square kilometres near Nictau.

Hathaway said he believes the coyotes have moved in to the area because their main prey, deer, have been gathering there in small brook reserves.

He said the deer had to move because some of their prime wintering yards have been cut down.

So they are gathering in areas that are smaller but have less snow.

“You go in where you have a good canopy of cedar and mature softwood and stuff and maybe there's only 12, 15 inches in there, which makes it easier for the deer to get around,” he said.

“Where in the deeper snow, I've seen in the past where they've run out into the clearcuts and it's just fatal. There's no getting away because the deer can't go anywhere.”

Hathaway says deer wintering yards will never grow back the same. And once the deer population drops to a certain level it won't be able to rebound because of various pressures, including coyotes, vehicle accidents and poaching.

The outfitter said he sells the pelts from the coyotes that he hunts and traps.

Hathaway said hunters in the region are saving a lot of deer by killing 60 coyotes.

“With the removal of the coyotes you are certainly tipping the scales or giving more equality to it, because if you leave that many coyotes in that area, they are going to live primarily off of deer meat,” he said.